2. That it is not inscrutable.
3. That its scope and direction are to be determined by His name. All these thoughts are included in this, that it is the will of a loving, good God, the will of a Father.
How that destroys all harsh, awful ideas such as those of a stony fate, or a cold necessity, or an omnipotent tyrant, or an inscrutable sovereign.
How Christianity has been affected by these ideas—extreme Calvinism, for instance; but it is more profitable to think how the tendency to them lies in us all.
II. Obedience is the issue of all religion.
The knowledge of the name, and the hallowing of it must go first. Note—
1. How inward the nature of obedience is. This sequence of petitions shifts the centre from without to within, from actions to dispositions.
2. How nothing is obedience that is not cheerful and loving. Not constrained, not sullen, not task-work.
3. How naturally dominant over all life the principles of God's truth are. Let them be known, and all the rest will follow. They have power to control all acts, great and small.
4. How impossible practical righteousness is without religion. The Name is the true basis of morality. We hear a great deal about life rather than creed; the Gospel is both. The one foundation of theoretical and practical morals is the will of God.